<h2>About KBOX</h2>
KBOX is a set of Linux command-line and console utilities, built to run on 
Android devices (and Chromebooks with Android support). Android already
runs Linux, of a sort, and it isn't obvious why a special environment
is needed to run Linux utilities. After all, terminal emulators are
already available, and Android already provides basic command-line
utilities.
<p/>
The problem is that the Android Linux implementation is pretty minimal, and the
filesystem layout isn't very much like a traditional Linux system. So it's
actually quite difficult to run more complex utilties (Perl, gcc, Python)
in a way that is familiar, even if they can be built at all.
<p/>
The central parts of KBOX are:
<ul>
<li><code>libfakechroot</code>, a library that intercepts all low-level 
C library 
calls that deal with file operations, and remaps file locations. It is this
that provides the illusion of a traditional Linux filesystem, and</li>
<li><code>kbox_shell</code>, a process that is started by the terminal
emulator, and runs a shell (Busybox, Bash, Zsh) with the proper
operating environment for <code>libfakechroot</code> do do its thing.</li>
</ul> 

KBOX is specifically designed for Android devices that are <i>not</i>
rooted. There's nothing to stop it being installed on a rooted device,
but the kinds of tricks it uses are unlikely to be necessary on a
device to which the user has complete administrative access.
<p/>
The current version of KBOX is KBOX4. It provides (at present)
the same utilties as KBOX3, but uses a completely different build process.
This new process should make it easier to provide builds for 
different Android hardware. KBOX3 packages will (or, at least, should)
deploy and run on KBOX4, provided that builts are available for the
device architecture. The reverse is probably true. KBOX4 completely
supercedes all previous releases, which should be regarded as obsolete.
<p/>
KBOX is primarily maintained by Kevin Boone (kevin at railwayterrace dot com),
with contributions from a number of other people. The intellectual property
rights to the various packages it provides belong to the authors
of those package -- KBOX itself has very little original code.
